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New Zealand: Lots of women, no blokes

Cute story in New Zealand. It appears that al the blokes are taking off overseas leaving a pile of single women back in NZ, so if you are not a Kiwi, but getting a bit desperate, perhaps you should think about emmigrating.

Since 1991, the census has shown a widening gap between the number of women and men aged between 20 and 49, reversing a long history of men having the numerical advantage.

In 1986 there were 700 more men than women in that age group, but by 1991 women had started pulling ahead.

By 2001, the census counted 53,000 more women than men aged 20-49, or just under 7 per cent more women. About 1.5 million Kiwis are in this age group.

The shortage of men comes despite them starting off life in greater numbers – 5 per cent more boys are born than girls.

So where have all the men gone?”

“‘We really have no idea,’ says Callister, who has received a government grant to look at reasons for the imbalance.

Callister said some of the gap could be explained by young men being slightly undercounted in the census because they moved around more.

But this would still put the gap at around 36,000 more women in the 20-49 age group than men, giving women a 4 per cent lead. The loss could be due to migration of men from New Zealand, or in fewer men than women returning from their OE.

“It may be that New Zealand men are getting partners in other countries and stay on, and the women come back to New Zealand thinking they’ll get a partner here,” says Callister.

The loss of men was too great to be explained by New Zealand’s high male youth suicide rate, or by death through risk-taking or car accidents. The imbalance is an oddity – New Zealand has one of the highest ratio of women to men among developed countries. In Denmark and Germany, the imbalance runs the other way.

Self-styled Kiwi bloke Gary McCormick said the gap was proof that the government had to give men a subsidy to get them to stay in the country.

“Five thousand (dollars) would do, they can then buy a Holden and other things that help improve their social operation,” he said. (Über Kiwi: That would work for me)

He said the gap between males and females was the result of the sexual revolution.

“When a species is under threat it starts to disappear, this is what is happening here . . . soon there will be only a couple of dozen blokes left.”

But “single and ready to mingle” Auckland accountant Hunter Dolan, 34, said the figures were cause to celebrate, even if women at nightclubs could be like “sharks at feeding time”.

“There’s nothing wrong with Kiwi girls, but a lot of guys leave the country to earn more money,” he said.

Dolan, who has been single for a year, has dated five women in the past six months. “Some places you go, there are just women in their hundreds. I’d much rather be a single guy here than a single girl.”